The best way to safely operate in a hostile environment is to be prepared for and proficient at our jobs. When lives are on the line, we really have one chance to get it right, making it even more critical that we have a mastery of our responsibilities and basic fireground operations to minimize the likelihood of failure.
In the last 15 years, my fire department has suffered two preventable line-of-duty deaths (LODDs). Firefighter Oscar Armstrong died with an uncharged hoseline in his hand in a flashover event on March 21, 2003. Fire Apparatus Operator Daryl Gordon died at a multi-story apartment fire on March 26, 2015. Initial-arriving companies couldn’t advance onto a fire in the apartment, causing smoke to spread to all floors and Daryl to fall into an elevator shaft that had an outward swinging door. Both of our internal reports and the NIOSH reports recognized poor basic fireground operations and skills.
Recognizing our failures
Each of us will make mistakes; however, it is often the timing of the mistake and the number of mistakes that lead to the fireground domino effect that can result in injury or death. In order to understand the methods in which we fail, we will discuss several topics: habit-based attack, mindset, company readiness, expectations, mental fortitude, fitness for duty, fire behavior, decision-making and training.
Habit-based attack
We typically fight fires in the same type of occupancies: single- and multiple-family dwellings. This can lead us to choose a particular size hoseline and follow “routine” execution of tactics that always seem to work. For example, the 1¾-inch line is the staple of the American fire service. It’s quick, mobile and typically provides enough gpm to combat fires in single- and multiple-family occupancies.
Even when the occupancy or fire type changes, we sometimes fall back on what has always worked. We might still select the 1¾-inch or the preconnected line, even if it’s not the best choice based on the size of the fire, the distance from the apparatus or other variables.
Our habits are generally based on good luck. But this good luck simply reinforces bad behavior. We must acknowledge that we sometimes have to go to plan “B” or “C.” If we can’t call an audible or easily change to these plans when needed, we are destined for failure.
Mindset
When dispatched for smoke in a building, smell of something burning, fire on the stovetop or even a reported fire in an occupancy, you must always expect that there will be fire. We all know that there is strong likelihood that these incidents won’t escalate past an investigation, smoke scare or a small incipient fire; however, when we fall into the trap of complacency, we will eventually get caught. What does it mean to be “caught”? It means we’re caught unprepared. We are delayed in getting water on the fire and assisting any occupants.
Having a proper mindset requires a positive attitude, a realization that what you are doing is your job, and a strong self-discipline to always be ready. We must be aware of our potential for complacency and instead go into each fire understanding that it could be the worst fire of our career. For us, Armstrong’s LODD in 2003 started as food on the stove, which progressed to involvement of the kitchen and eventually flashover on the first floor of the residence. Gordon’s fire started as a fire alarm and was upgraded on a report of a smell of smoke. There was nothing showing upon arrival of first-due companies, and the fire started on the stovetop.
When your mindset tells you: “It’s just another food on the stove,” “We’ve been here 100 times and it’s always nothing,” “This is just another fire alarm” or “Don’t worry, this will be nothing,” you are eventually going to get caught not being ready, which usually gives the dominoes of failure the push to start falling.
Company readiness
Company readiness involves personnel (officers and firefighters) being ready for their jobs when they show up. This means making sure personnel are prepared for the day and have their heads in the game, ensuring equipment and apparatus are ready, and always expecting that your next response may be the worst of your career.
On the engine company, readiness means proficiency in the basics: apparatus operation, equipment assigned to the apparatus, hose loads and deployment of those loads, flaking of the line, movement and operation of the line, and mastery of the SCBA. Further, you have to have a good knowledge of your running area, including water supply, street layouts and conditions, access, types of buildings and occupancies, special hazards and routes other companies take when responding to a call for assistance.
You must also be adaptive. You are bound to make mistakes, but it’s more about how well you can recover from the mistakes. Always maintain alertness to what is going on around you and remain accountable for your company’s actions and duties. By following orders, keeping track of your company, avoiding freelancing, and executing tactics as written or directed, you help to maintain accountability on the fireground.
When reaching the point of service, firefighters tend to take a long time in the final donning of their PPE. Firefighters typically get off the apparatus wearing their PPE with SCBA on their back, and then the final step involves donning of the facepiece, hood, helmet and gloves. How long should this take? If it takes more than 30 seconds, something is wrong. Ideally, with practice and proficiency, it’s a 10- or 15-second task.
Expectations
The department, chief officers and company officers must set expectations of their personnel in duties and performance on the fireground. Without expectations, your personnel will never know what anyone expects. Some simple expectations: Be on time, always be dressed and ready, know your job, be on the same game plan for various runs (alarms, fires, high-rise, etc.).
Mental fortitude
Mental fortitude is really the combination of mental preparation and toughness. The mental preparation aspect involves being present when you are at work. Do you come to work to watch movies, play video games or sleep? Do you have personal, financial, addiction, health or other issues affecting your mental performance?
The toughness part is the ability to work under pressure, to receive and execute orders in stressful situations. It’s critical to build a mental toughness so you can overcome mistakes or handle issues that arise, while remaining calm and executing sound decision-making skills.
Fitness for duty
Are you physically capable to do the job to which you are assigned? Fitness issues are our biggest cause of injury and death. You must ensure that you are prepared and ready to stretch and operate the line, climb the stairs, raise and climb the ladder, force the door, remove the occupant and all other duties.
Fire behavior
A strong knowledge of fire behavior is essential for all firefighters—and there are many resources available to help in these efforts. Firefighters must understand how the amount and type of building materials affect the release of BTUs. We must recognize that smoke is fuel, and heated, fast-moving smoke signals imminent flashover. Further, high-heat environments, rollover, off-gassing or pyrolysis are all late signs of flashover.
It is also vital that firefighters have an understanding of various other topics: how fire spreads from one area to another, how coordinated ventilation is essential to the safety of firefighters and occupants inside the fire building, when we need water in our hoseline, when we need to use the hoseline to cool the environment, and when we aren’t making positive progress. Finally, we never want to be between where the fire is and where it wants to go without a hoseline to operate or a door to close!
Decision-making
Being able to make decisions is essential for all firefighters and fire officers. The unfortunate part of our occupation is that we don’t get the ability to go to enough fires to practice and hone our decision-making skills. As such, we must rely on mentoring, experience gained through simulation (pictures and videos of fires), and studying the decisions of others to gain the experience to make rapid decisions related to size-up, go vs. no-go, line selection and placement, forcible-entry issues, apparatus placement, search areas, etc. Many other high-risk occupations (pilots) use simulations to improve decision making and performance. Regardless of how you learn best, you must determine a way to hone these skills, as they are often a source of failure on the fireground.
Training
This is by far the most important element in what we can do to avoid failure on the fireground. Training must be a priority for you, your fire company and fire department as a whole. Determine weaknesses while drilling or on responses and then fine-tune the skills that need some work. Develop a good routine and practice on every shift. When you practice every shift, your personnel will start expecting it to happen, routine will be developed, and over time, they will start coming up with ideas.
For company officers, you are an integral part of the team, so you need to practice and set the example for everyone else. You need to set expectations of your training, ensure mastery of skills for your assigned jobs, and train until you can’t get it wrong. And if you are on an engine company, you really have to master getting your hoselines into service and operating them in a variety of situations and occupancies.
It’s also important to understand that there is a difference between training and practice. When we train, we are generally learning a new skill or method. When we practice, we are simply just fine-tuning and ensuring continual competency of a skill we already know. Consider the training of professional athletes. Before baseball games, players engage in batting practice. In football, the team prepares for games by playing the practice squad. Baseball players hit baseballs, catch baseballs and run. Football players assigned to defense practice tackling. They study film about their opponents, walk through steps and methods to do their job, visualize their actions and actually tackle multiple times before ever playing in a game. A professional football player definitely hasn’t only tackled a couple of times before making his debut. Why should we think that stretching the line a couple of times is good enough?
To keep everyone on their toes, make your drill sessions realistic and be creative. Occasionally throw a curve ball to see how issues are handled. Practice at full speed to mimic fireground operations. And find a variety of locations to drill. Get out into your run area, use parking garages, and multi-dwellings, vacant occupancies, etc., to add realism.
Don’t forget, anytime you find a problem or issue with a drill, you have an obligation to redo it and work toward perfection.
In sum
We have covered a variety of reasons why firefighters tend to fail during operations on the fireground. Training and practice is the best way to prepare for the jobs we face and to help ensure the safety of our personnel in a dangerous environment. We can make working in a burning building safer if we are prepared. When the unthinkable happens or you have your worst day, you will revert to the baseline of your training. You won’t be able to magically think or solve the problem if you aren’t prepared for and proficient in the problem you are facing. What you have done to prepare for that moment is it! Think about your own loved ones or family. Would you want you showing up to your house if it was on fire? Would you expect perfection? Would you want the firefighters to be average or ready for battle? Do your job, be proficient and be ready.
